so in my somewhat recent travels through canada i left a bunch of gear with my dad most of it ended up in his shed behind his house. i had asked him to keep a few pieces inside the house but it didn't quite happen.

so anyway, now i have a bass with rusted pickups. i don't have an amp at the moment so i don't know just how bad it is but i assume that it's going to sound like shit.

does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing? any advice? can i just file the rust off and repaint the pickups? (they're the old single coil style with metal posts sticking up through a plastic mold)

It seems easier to just replace the pickups.

As I learned in Chemistry, Rust is an irreversible chemical reaction. So basically, it will be rusty no matter what or something.

I'd just get them replaced.

thanks for the replies. i guess i'll have to see what it sounds like first before i decide to plunk down the cash to replace the pickups.

how did it sound?

dunno what it sounds like yet. don't have access to an amp at the moment. i'm hoping to jam with my old drummer in the near future and there would be an amp i can try at the jam spot. until then i just hope it's surface rust and not internal.

You'll be allright...magnetism goes right through the rust...we aren't talking 1979 Ford Granada rust here...

yeah, my pickups on my main guitar are rusted all to hell and I get better tone than most guitar gods get out of their majorly expensive setups

On vintage guitars rust is a must, will not effect sound at all jsut looks cool.

hmmm...very brash statement...I'll have to check out your stuff...

thing is, he keeps braggin about his playing, but never posts any of his stuff